Examples of known fuel injection systems may use a fuel injector to dispense a quantity of fuel to be combusted in an internal combustion engine. A fuel injector may be considered to be an electronically controlled valve. It may also be configured to receive a supply of pressurized fuel delivered by a supply source in a fuel delivery process. A feature of the fuel injector may include opening and closing many times per second during an injection cycle. Ideally, the fuel injector is utilized to facilitate the maintenance of a balanced air-to-fuel mixture during the fuel delivery process.
A fuel delivery system of an automotive can be configured to readily utilize a fuel injector in order to provide fuel delivery per the injector cycle. By way of example, a fuel injector design may include a nozzle designed to atomize the fuel as pressurized fuel passes through the nozzle. This process generates a fine mist of fuel so that it can burn easily and achieve combustion within a valve chamber. The quantity of fuel that is dispensed to the fuel injector is varied in accordance with a number of engine parameters such as, for example, engine speed, engine load, and engine emissions.
The amount of fuel supplied to the engine is determined by the amount of time the fuel injector stays open. This parameter is known as the pulse width and may be typically controlled by an engine control unit or ECU. The engine control unit is generally responsible for controlling all of the electronic components on the engine. An electronic fuel injection system may typically monitor at least one of the aforementioned engine parameters and electrically operate the fuel injector to dispense fuel. The engine control unit (ECU) may also be employed to adjust the air-to-fuel ratio in real-time by monitoring the amount of oxygen in the exhaust.
In order to optimize the maximum efficiency of the fuel delivery process, it may be important to meet certain objectives in order to achieve accurate fuel metering and to provide quick response during the fuel delivery process. Hence, the positioning of the fuel injector relative to the intake valve is of value to some extent. For instance, in a variety of applications, the fuel injectors may be mounted in an intake manifold of an engine so that they may spray fuel directly at the engine intake valves. This may be accomplished via a fuel supply, such as a pipe known as a fuel rail, which supplies pressurized fuel to one or more of the fuel injectors during the fuel delivery process. Hence, by varying the fuel delivery per fuel injector cycle of the fuel injector during the fuel delivery process, one can directly affect the performance of the vehicle.
In a typical automotive configuration, an accelerator pedal may be connected to a throttle valve. This valve can be configured to regulate the amount of air which enters into an engine. In operation, depressing the accelerator pedal effectively opens up the throttle valve, thus, allowing more air to enter into the valve chamber. The engine control unit (ECU) “sees” the throttle valve open and may compensate accordingly by increasing the fuel rate in anticipation of more air entering into the engine. It is important to increase the fuel rate as soon as the throttle valve opens. Otherwise, when the gas pedal is first pressed, there may be a hesitation as some air reaches the cylinders without enough fuel mixed therein.
Additionally, other sensors may be utilized to monitor the mass of air entering the engine as well as the amount of oxygen in the exhaust. The engine control unit (ECU) may use this information to fine-tune the fuel delivery so that the air-to-fuel ratio is optimal.
Hence, fuel injectors have been known to operate under stringent conditions and within tight tolerance settings with respect to other inter-related engine components. By way of example, an electronic unit injector (EUI) may be utilized to inject diesel fuel under very high pressure into a combustion chamber of a respective diesel engine. These injectors may require a height adjustment that is unique for various engine models. Typically, height gauge tools have been utilized to facilitate orienting the electronic unit injector into position. When setting the original fuel injectors position in accordance with factory settings, each fuel injector requires a specific height adjustment that is unique for various engine models. This is also true when re-setting the proper height of the fuel injector(s) after servicing the fuel injector(s) and reassembling the fuel injector(s) in accordance with the proper factory setting. It is important to achieve the correct factor setting of the fuel injector(s) since most engines have a unique factory specification for respective fuel injectors. Depending on which engine is being utilized, a potentially different factory setting will be necessary to properly position the fuel injector(s).
Due to the potentially different requirements of fuel injection height settings per engine assembly, it is sometimes necessary to utilize various height gauge tools of different lengths. Any one of the height gauge tools of various lengths are typically used to set the fuel injector factory height setting required for a particular engine. Hence, for a particular factory setting of a fuel injector height, a single height gauge tool may be selected to properly install the fuel injector onto an engine at a prescribed height setting.
For another kind of engine, it is probable that a different height setting may be required in accordance to the factory setting of that engine. Hence, another height gauge tool may be selected to install the fuel injector(s) in accordance to the newly prescribed height setting of the engine. Accordingly, a different height gauge tool corresponding to the factory height settings of a particular type of engine can be necessary in order to set the height of the fuel injector.
While individual height gauge tools may provide a certain level of assistance in obtaining a proper height adjustment to the fuel injector(s) in an engine assembly, using individual height gauge tools to achieve pre-specified height settings of the fuel injector(s) may not provide the most efficient manner in which an operator works in order to make the aforementioned height adjustment(s) to the fuel injector(s). For instance, the operator would be required to stop work at various intervals to identify and select the proper height adjustment gauge tool in accordance with the factory setting for a particular engine. Moreover, this selection process could be a choice out of many height gauge tools. Such a selection could significantly slow down the assembly process. Additionally, an operator having to sort/shuffle through various height gauge tools in order to perform all or part of an assembly process, which otherwise requires precision and true detail to work, could be a cumbersome task. Furthermore, there is a potential to lose individual height gauge tools from a complete set, since different tools are required for different engine/fuel injector height adjustment settings.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an easy-to-use and simple compact tool capable of readily adjusting the height of a fuel injector in an automotive engine assembly. It is also desirable to provide a single tool which is capable of making a plurality of height adjustments in order to alleviate an extra amount of tools which could be otherwise required to match various height requirements per the fuel injector setting corresponding to different engines. It is also desirable to provide a method of adjusting a fuel injector in an engine assembly.